


Primeval 100 Drabbles: 51 - 100

by Annariel, lsellers (Annariel)



Series: Primeval 100 Drabbles [2]
Category: Primeval, Primeval: New World
Genre: Community: primeval100, Drabble Collection, Drabbles, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-04
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2017-10-22 05:11:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 48
Words: 4,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/234199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/lsellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mixture of drabbles for prompts drawing from all of the Primeval series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stephen Hart

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to collect together the first drabbles for the second 50 Primeval 100 prompts as I write them. Therefore it is a work in progress since these only get tackled with p100 does a "past challenges" week. One of the reasons I've put "Choose not to Warn" and not listed characters and pairings is that this may well vary as more get added and the characters and pairings would probably quickly tend towards "all". Since I can add specific warning as well as "Choose not to Warn" I will add specific warnings as they crop up.
> 
> Prompt 100, is posted separated as the Celebrations Drabble Cycle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 51

Helen schooled her emotions into dispassionate study. Even when feverish, Stephen was handsome. Those long eyelashes gave him a gentle, girlish look, while his lean frame and taut muscles spoke of steel beneath the fluff. It would be a shame if he were to die.

Rescuing him was out of the question though. She had no time nor patience for entanglements and explanations. In the grand scheme of things he was already dead, or not yet born.

Anyway, Nick was, no doubt, frantically searching for him. In fact, if Stephen were to survive, then maybe he could make himself useful.


	2. Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 52

Danny was heading for a small spiral of smoke on the horizon. It was probably just a freak natural fire but he had hope none-the-less. Even so, he was stunned when he crested the rise to see Helen cooking over a camp fire.

He must have made some sound for she looked up. She was young. Her face was smooth and the expression almost open. Her smile was dazzling.

She stood up awkwardly and gestured at the cooking animal. Danny's mouth watered.

"Will you break your fast with me?" she asked. The formality of the words were weighty with significance.


	3. Picnic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 53 (and 333 Past Challenges)

Jenny arranged a picnic for Sarah's birthday. Just the two of them, a hamper from Fortnum and Mason's, a white tablecloth and a large shady umbrella. They ate smoked salmon and caviaar in the sunshine and sipped fine champagne from elegant flutes.

"This was perfect," Sarah said as they packed up.

Jenny was warm and happy and just a little drunk and so she had to ruin the mood.

"Give up the ARC." She thoughtlessly blurted out the anxious plea.

Sarah's face fell, the perfect afternoon spoiled.

Jenny leaned back, angry at herself, but, for all that, the anxiety remained.


	4. Jenny Lewis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 54 (and 431 past challenges)

Claudia Brown had not been quite what was needed, but she was close. Possibly she would have done, however the player didn't like taking chances and so was spending expensive points to rejig his team. He needed someone with a more brittle edge - take the Claudia Brown template and add a little "piss and vinegar", dial down the quiet self-confidence to give someone both more vulnerable and more brash.

She sat back in quite pleasure as the new piece moved onto the board. Its red heels, so unlike Claudia Brown, clicked down the corridors of the new ARC building.


	5. The Ladies of Primeval

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 55

Jenny Lewis took Lorraine and Abby out to lunch each week to escape the testosterone fuelled environment of the ARC.

Today she was frustrated. "We can't keep any more creatures at the ARC?"

"No," said Abby.

"Where am I going to find somewhere discreet for storing dinosaurs?"

"Leek managed," said Lorraine.

"He wasn't discreet. I've spent weeks covering that lot up."

"What about this?" asked Lorraine, tapping her paper. "Dilapidated country house, acres of grounds containing disused private zoo."

"Give me that!" Jenny almost snatched the newspaper.

"Glad that's settled," said Abby, "'cos those velociraptors we caught last week... Breeding pair."


	6. Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 56

"And now the happy couple will lead the first dance."

Lester, with a slightly sardonic smile, bowed deeply to Lyle who fluttered his eyelashes comically, but took Lester's hand.

There was barely suppressed laughter among the rest of the soldiers. But once the music started jaws dropped as the two men swept gracefully around the room.

"Bugger Lyle! He's been practicing," Finn complained.

Ditzy grinned. "You should never, ever have bet him he couldn't pull off a traditional wedding with all the trappings."

"D'you think Lester knows?" Finn asked.

Ditzy looked at Lester's serene poker face. "Oh yes, he knows."


	7. Joy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 59

It had been a long, slow descent into darkness. It had started with a moment of surprised and unadulterated joy. Who cared what Helen thought? or that Lester stood by disapproving. For that one brief moment, Nick thought only of Claudia and her lips on his and the promise of a future.

Then there was a long trek through death and disorientation. He had floundered in a morass of confusion and betrayal, more death and the reality of Helen's descent into darkness.

Connor, ever faithful, was close at hand. Nick closed his eyes and allowed himself the memory of joy.


	8. Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 60

Ryan liked the British summer. It could be awful but if you spent enough time in the open tying not to be eaten by dinosaurs, you appreciated the warmth in the air and the wind that didn't bite.

When the sun was shining, but it wasn't too hot, nothing could quite match it.

"There you go, grandad!" Jim tucked a blanket around Ryan's legs.

"I'm not that feeble you know," Ryan protested, but only half-heartedly, Jim was a good lad.

The air was full of the scent of roses. It was summer now. Autumn was coming, but that was OK.


	9. Pollen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 61

"What's that lovely smell?" asked Claudia, breathing deep.

"Pollen?" hazarded Nick, staring at the anomaly.

Claudia placed a hand on his arm. She couldn't resist stroking upwards, caressing the skin and muscles.

Then suddenly there were hot lips on her own, and a breathless need. Hands scrabbled at the buttons on her blouse. She was aware of his closeness, his smell, his chest pressed against her own and then the blessed relief as he buried himself inside her.

Afterwards, Nick sat up, his hair dishevelled, surprised and upright. A slight smile quirked the corner of his mouth. "Aye, definitely pollen."


	10. Sleepy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 62

Claudia sat down heavily on a box and leaned against the tree behind, closing her eyes.

"You OK?" asked Stephen.

"Just sleepy."

"You could lie down in one of the trucks. They'll be a while yet."

Claudia shook her head. "I've been having bad dreams. I don't think the worry will help that."

She stared balefully at the anomaly.

Stephen half-smiled and shrugged. "All be over soon," he mumbled turning to stare anxiously at it himself.

Claudia nodded and leaned back against the tree. She closed her eyes and fell one last time into dreams of monsters and sparkling light.


	11. Jurassic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 63 (and 333 Past Challenges)

"We don't have time for this," Connor muttered as Becker struggled with the locking device.

"I thought you were waiting on some results from Cross?" Becker said. 

The lock activated, held briefly and then failed. Connor cursed, Evan's "time flux" was playing merry hell with the equipment.

"When did you say this anomaly led to?" Becker turned to look him and suddenly Connor was looking at a different face; darker, more open. 

"You all right, Mate?" Mac asked.

"What?" Connor squeaked.

Then it was Becker again. "I asked when does it lead to?"

Connor swallowed. "The Jurassic," he said faintly.


	12. The Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 64 (and 431 Past Challenges)

Becker grimaced in irritation as a positive horde of children ran past, all screaming and shouting.

He marched over to Lorraine at the buffet.

"That was your Angie in the lead. I hold you entirely responsible!" Becker said.

Lorrained regarded him silently for a moment and then ate a chicken vol-au-vent.

"If someone doesn't get them under control then..." Becker hesitated trying to work out what dreadful fate might befall children at the ARC's annual garden party, "...they might knock Lester over."

Lorraine raised her eyebrows gracefully. "You could always try that line on Connor. He's quite an anxious parent."


	13. Nick Cutter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 66

Bloody Nicholas Cutter, Jenny thought. The computer technician at the anomaly had been peculiarly unpleasant, taking delight in particular playing a complicated game of one-up-manship with Connor and flustering the young man. Still, decking him in the name of removing him from danger, had been well outside standard operating procedures.

Jenny emailed the report and rubbed her forehead. It was past nine o'clock. She grabbed her bag and left the office, but nearly tripped over a large floral arrangement in the corridor outside. She plucked the small card from amid the blooms. Bloody Nick Cutter, Jenny thought with a smile.


	14. From the Summit of White Hause

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 67

Helen sailed the Lapetus ocean in the bright noonday sun and imagined the silt, sandstone and mudstone building beneath her.

She sailed it again, millenia later. No lazy afternoon this, she dodged flying volcanic rock.

Mere tens of millions of years and she could walk the arid land. There were no eruptions that day.

Then it eroded into the Carboniferous seas where she snorkled among the brightly coloured fish.

The ice ages rolled over it, carving curves into the sediment and volcanic rock.

Helen watched the Lake District change and knew she could never again remain shackled to one time.


	15. The Ocean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 68

Stephen looked out of Sanctuary window. Rain was washing down the glass; typical British summer; typical British view; a suburban garden, houses, a few trees.

Stephen thought of the ocean, of towering waves and blustering gales. He remembered surfing the barrel of a double-overhead. He remembered sailing single-handed through an unexpected squall. He remembered the thrill and the adrenaline and simply feeling alive.

Ryan's arms snaked round his waist as he, too, gazed out of the window in silence. Ryan was the same. He'd lived a life defined by action and danger. Here they were safe, but they weren't alive.


	16. Comfort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 69

The team went drinking but she's an outsider. Jenny's been allowed to know she isn't real, a poor copy.

If we had looked past the facade of her home would we have seen her take off her face, let down her hair and curl up on the sofa with chocolates, wine and a book?

Did she phone family or friends (no fiance now) and say "we buried a colleague today"? Getting support from those who know she is strong, loyal and resourceful, qualities "the team" barely see.

Did she hear her answer-phone message from Cutter?

"Thanks for being there. Appreciated."


	17. Behind the Scenes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 70

"Should we help?"

"We've not been asked."

"But we're porters. It's from the French to carry. I learned that in school."

"Are you trained in lifting?"

"No."

"That cage looks heavy. It could contravene Health and Safety if we tried to lift it."

"But Miss Maitland's only a slip of a thing."

"Tough though, and very independent. It probably contravenes Health and Safety to offer unwanted assistance. Chauvinism is a dangerous activity."

"Urrgh! What was that?"

"Projectile vomit by the looks of it. Good thing we didn't offer to help. There's forms to fill in if our uniform gets soiled."


	18. Family (Drabble)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 71

"I never liked him much anyway," said Jenny's mother as she opened a fourth bottle of wine. Jenny was always amazed by her parent's ability to out-drink her.

"Couldn't stand the man," agreed her father.

"Why on Earth didn't you say?" demanded Jenny and laughed, shaking her head at them.

"Didn't want you to stop talking to me," he said, winked, and poured her another glass.

"Plenty more fish in the sea," added her mother aimiably.

Jenny thought of stubborn Scotsmen with wild hair and enthusiastic hands, not to mention a strong stomach for alcohol. They'd like him much better.


	19. Kisses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 72

Nick Cutter walked in the Permian, his mind revolving around a Rabbie Burns song.

 _Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;  
Ae fareweel, and then for ever!_

"Don't go," she had said.

Three kisses they had shared. The first a pretext, the second a sudden impulse followed by embarrassment and the last?

 _Had we never loved sae kindly,  
Had we never loved sae blindly,  
Never met - or never parted,  
We had ne'er been broken-hearted._

Nick Cutter shrugged off the words and the melody. He'd be seeing her again soon and then, he decided, there would definitely be more kisses.


	20. Maisy and Daisy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 73: Lazy

Lazy Maisy, feeling hazy,  
Walking to her hall,  
Spies a grand thing, six foot standing,  
By the campus wall.

Nutter Cutter storms and splutters,  
"A lion from a zoo."  
Pesters Lester who phones Chester,  
"Say it is one too".

Sexy soldiers with thigh holsters  
(Maisy starts to flirt)  
Find the grand thing needs some handling.  
Maisy's almost hurt.

Honour Connor, she's near a gonner.  
He hides her in a duct.  
Spry man Ryan tames the lion.  
Stephen looks well-... relieved everyone's OK.

Crazy Maisy, not so hazy,  
Talks of what she's seen.  
Dozy Daisy, feeling lazy,  
Doesn't tell the Dean.


	21. Armed and Dangerous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 74

The geek hindbrain has a way of cataloging information even when it is of little interest to the geek in question. Simply by hanging around Ryan, Connor knew there was a choice between armour piercing and stopping power. An armour piercing bullet could pass straight through a target doing comparatively little damage. Bullets that exploded or expanded within the target were banned by the Hague Convention.

"Fortunately," Ryan had said, grinning, "The Hague Convention doesn't hold in the Permian."

He'd gone through the anomaly fully armed and dangerous. Connor stared at it, blinking back tears. Armed and dangerous. Yeah! right!


	22. Irregularities will be Handled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 75 (crossover)
> 
> With Sapphire and Steel

Claudia pushed the barrier, ignoring the man and woman beside her.

"I wouldn't. That's a weak point in time," said Steel.

"I'm returning to my friends."

"You no longer belong there."

"If you break through," added Sapphire kindly, "things will follow."

Swirls of darkness radiated from where Claudia pressed against the strange surface.

"And if I don't come with you?"

"We take you anyway," said Steel harshly.

Sapphire pursed her lips and shot him a disapproving look but didn't contradict his words.


	23. Nick Cutter and the Pirate Dinosaurs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 75: Crossover
> 
> With the Pirate Dinosaurs

"OK. You sailed through the `pretty sparkly thing'."

"Arrr! That be so!" said Pirate Tyranosaurus Rex.

"Saw `Mr. Macall's Seaside Park of Fun' and stormed it."

"Shiver me timbers," agreed Pirate Triceratops.

"Giganatosaurus was scared by the spider," Nick glanced up at the large balloon floating over the Ghost Train, "at which point class 3B overpowered you."

The pirates cowered away from the children at his back.

"You promise to be good from now on in exchange for safe conduct back home."

"Yo ho ho," agreed Pirate Stegosaurus. "And a bottle of rum?" he added hopefully.

"No rum!" said Cutter.


	24. It's so... big

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 76

Ryan liked gardening. He owned a tiny ground floor flat which he'd bought for the garden.

At weekends he made things grow.

Arriving late, the bell unanswered, Connor went round the back and was unsurprised to find Ryan in baggy cords and an old shirt. His fingers were encased in earth from where he'd been splitting or lifting or planting or whatever it was he did.

"Thought you might come," Ryan said. "Look at this!"

He tossed Connor a turnip. Connor boggled at it.

"Why Ryan!" he said, "It's so... big."

"I'll show you big."

Ryan advanced with a grin.


	25. Accomplised

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 77

Abby studied herself in the mirror. _I have a natural gift with reptiles,_ she told herself.

She hadn't meant to overhear Lyle and Blade.

 _I do not need men for self-validation,_ she added.

"So what about Maitland and Lewis?" Blade had asked.

"I don't do women anymore," Lyle replied.

"Yeah, but if you did?"

 _I'm the world expert on Coelurosauravus,_ she said.

"Lewis has an evil eye," Lyle had mused thoughtfully.

"True."

 _I have a green belt in Tae Kwon do._

"But she has better tits."

Blade had nodded sagely.

 _But,_ Abby had to concede, _Jenny does have better tits._


	26. Creepy Crawlies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 78

As her horse crested the rise, Claudia could see the anomaly. She spurred it to a gallop, Stephen and Ryan close behind her. Dark smoke billowed up, enveloping them. Claudia clutched Mab's charm at her throat.

"Clouds of Hecate! yield!"

The darkness parted, allowing them a pathway.

Words floated out from beyond the gate.

 _Eye of newt, and toe of frog,  
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,  
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,  
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,_

Claudia reigned up sharply.

"What is it?" asked Ryan.

"I think this is one intervention we should allow to run its course."


	27. Bonfire Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 79

Helen sat beside Nick on the flat roof.

"Congratulations." He clinked her glass.

Helen thought of the future as the bubbly slipped down her throat. She needed to build a research group. Someone had mentioned a Stephen in third year, said he was good. There might be some money available for a PhD.

"You'll get a job soon," she said.

Further appointments were being discussed. She should get Nick into the group.

"My publication record's not good enough."

Helen kissed him fondly. "Don't sell yourself short."

"Helen?"

"Yes?"

"Will you marry me?"


	28. All that Glitters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 80

McAllister watched as Crane approached the anomaly. Crane always got to the anomaly first even when he ordered her to hang back. It was like moths and candle flames.

"What have we got?" he asked.

Crane stuck her head through. He hated it when she did that. "Drizzle. Swamp. Funny smell."

Wells shot him a look but kept his mouth shut. He knew what was coming next.

"Can we go through and check it out?" asked Crane.

Drizzle. Swamp. Funny smell.

"How many times do I have to tell you."

"All that glitters..." she gazed wistfully at the sparkling anomaly.


	29. Not all those who Wander are Lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 80: All that Glitters

Sometimes, something that some person does completely changes the fabric of the universe. A quirk of fate places such power in their hands that it is not simply history that changes as they blunder through time but the natural laws themselves. The old reality is wiped away, leaving no trace, no myths, no echos, except, perhaps, in the dreams of eccentric young men.

It happens surprisingly often.

Worlds that were flat become round.

Groping in the silt of the riverbed where an anomaly had dumped her, Helen's grasping fingers closed about something. It was small and round and surprisingly heavy.


	30. The Gym

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 81

Ryan runs on the treadmill as sweat sticks his shirt to his back.

Nicholas Cutter is safe and there is a woman in custody.

His muscles strain as he thinks of the man he has lost. Lost in a deep, dark place with no air to breath.

The exercise is as repetitious as his thoughts, lost in a deep, dark place with no air to breath.

He has lost a man.

His muscles strain as he thinks of the woman in custody.

But Nicholas Cutter is safe.

Sweat sticks his shirt to his back as Ryan runs on the treadmill.


	31. Office Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 82

Abby sank onto the sofa by Claudia.

"Cutter and Blade are an item?"

Claudia nodded. "Since Chile."

Lester and Lyle were almost, but not quite, holding hands. Ryan's arm was around Stephen's waist. Connor and Ditzy were actually snogging in the corner like teenagers.

"Ditzy better check the water again."

Claudia shook her head. "New theory."

"Yes?"

"Everyone is hand-picked by Lester, right?"

"Right."

"So Ditzy reckons Lester has the most finely tuned gaydar this side of San Francisco."

"Shame it doesn't extend to women," grumbled Abby.

Claudia leaned forward, displaying a surprisingly generous amount of cleavage.

"Want to bet?"


	32. One of our Santas is Missing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 83: Winter Wonderland

"There he is," shouted Ryan.

The missing Santa was sat in a snow drift opposite some sort of caveman.

They pelted towards him, the soldiers' guns at the ready. The caveman eyed them warily and then backed off, stuffing bits of fur and stone into a leather bag.

"Come on, mate," said Ryan. "Time to get you home."

Dumbly, the Santa allowed them to drag him towards the anomaly.

"Where's his hat?" asked Connor when they got there.

Ryan looked back over the ice field. The caveman was disappearing into the distance, a splash of red perched jauntily on head.


	33. Deck the Halls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 84

_Fast away the old year passes._

Stephen was sure there hadn't been a door here before.

He opened it. It was another bedroom; bed neatly made up; the room freshly aired.

Ryan appeared at his elbow. "Where did this come from?"

"Management! What's this?" called Stephen.

"We're expecting a new arrival."

"What! Who?!"

"We don't know," Management said in a small quiet voice. "But we thought we should start getting things ready."

Stephen and Ryan looked at the room in silence a moment. Then Stephen shut the door. They didn't discuss it again.

 _Hail the new ye lads and lasses._


	34. Ghosts at the Feast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 85: Office Party

The team were having fun but Nick was watching the ghosts. Stephen was hovering behind Abby his face a mixture of anger and regret. But his mouth twitched slightly in acceptance every time her hand reached out to touch Connor. The soldiers were telling bawdy stories and laughing uproariously. Ryan was there, with the men he cared about. Nick didn't see Claudia very often. Sometimes there was a slight lag as Jenny turned her head. Just once, as Jenny stepped swiftly aside to dodge a drinks' tray, Nick saw Claudia. She stood staring at him, smiled, faded and was gone.


	35. 'Tis the Season

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 86

Season of feasts and warmth and light,  
Connor and Abby before the fire,  
Entwining their arms to hold back the night;  
Jenny, in Church, harkens to the choir,  
Nick in her thoughts and he with his Mam.  
Loaded with turkey, he sinks into sleep.  
Grubbing in mud and laughing at fear,  
Lester and Lyle are in cave dark and deep.  
In Sanctuary's walls there's candles and ham.  
They drink to their friends with many a dram  
And watch over them in the coming new year.

Dinosaurs too acknowledge the season,  
To make up the word count, if no other reason.


	36. Resolutions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 87

Department C19, Project 673, Minutes.

`  
July 2000`

` **Resolution:** Project to continue, despite unexpected side effects`

`July 2007`

` **Resolution:** Reappearance of Cutter problem to be monitored but no action taken.`

`August 2007`

` **Resolution:** Proposal to create an Anomaly Research Centre to be supported. It could provide a convenient official unofficial response.`

`September 2007`

` **Resolution:** Political enemies of James Lester to be identified in case of trouble.`

`October 2007`

` **Resolution:** Oliver Leek to be assigned to the ARC.`

`January 2008`

` **Resolution:** Oliver Leek to recruit Helen Cutter, if possible.`

`April 2008`

` **Observation:** Well! That went well!`

`May 2009`

` **Resolution:** Project to continue.  
`


	37. Hunger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 88

There are great four dimensional leviathans weaving their way through the vortex. Their feelers spread out through time feeding on the great energy spikes the ships of the time aware powers trail in their wake. But every so often one gets entangled in the gravity well of some planet. Its tentacles encircle the world in an embrace. Trapped far from the temporal highways the creature wraps itself tighter and tighter about the world. The inhabitants, limited to three dimensions, see only a cross-section of the limbs as they pass by, pulsing and gripping and inviting, desperate to assuage the hunger.


	38. Fools Rush In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 89

Stephen gaped at the man who had just landed. The blonde hair and blue eyes were familiar. He wore blue jeans but his feet and torso were bare, revealing toned muscles. Large, white, feathered wings sprung from his back.

"Who might you be?" asked Cutter, eyeing him with undisguised appreciation.

"Captain Telperion Ryan, Anomaly Unit. Who are you?"

"Nicholas Cutter and Stephen Hart, Scientists."

"From the original anomaly team?"

They nodded, dumbly.

"Where's your backup?" asked Telperion. "You didn't just rush through did you?"

Stephen looked sideways at Cutter. "Don't worry. Your great-grand daddy will be along in a minute."


	39. Brave New World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 90

They stopped on a high eyrie above a grassy plain and sat side by side, comparing notes. After a bit Claudia pulled out her wallet and showed Miranda the dog-eared photos of her family that she kept inside.

Miranda was fascinated by the glossy paper, the clothes and the furniture. The glimpses of Claudia's mother's tiny front room, with its faded floral curtains and brown floc wallpaper filled her with wonder. Her hands touched the faces.

"Your brother, and cousin Emily and Mrs Watkins from over the road," she repeated reverentially.

 _"Oh brave new world  
That has such people in't"_


	40. Pooh Sticks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 91: Water, water everywhere

The grounds were full of follies. Tiny waterways ran between mock Greek temples until they emptied out into a lake.

With nothing coming through the anomaly, Connor and Abby played pooh sticks.

Cutter sat quietly, with a pen-knife and a small piece of wood. When it looked something like a boat, he stuck in a twig, attached a paper sail and wrote Stephen Hart on the prow.

Together, they chased it down the rivulets, watched anxiously as it nearly jammed on last year's leaves and cheered when it raced out into the open lake and sailed away to the west.


	41. Say it for me, Say it to me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 92: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
> 
> Also written for ladydevon's prompt Savin' Me by Nickelback

Having lost everything, I became lost myself. Lost, to die, crawling on hands and knees through the Jurassic desert; a burnt husk; an ugly blot on the pristine landscape.

Struggling back to consciousness, I just made out a woman in rough, practical clothing. She crouched before a fire, by the carcass of an archaeopteryx. I closed my eyes against her. I had not called for Helen, my bad penny.

Broth was forced between my lips, causing eyes to open.

"Claudia," my throat was hoarse with heat and thirst, my mind blank with disbelief, "what are you doing here?"

"Saving you."


	42. Valentine/Anti-Valentine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 93

"What are you doing?"

"It's Valentine's day."

Stephen boggled. "OK so, in this timeline, Ryan and I died and you went soft in the head."

"Mebbe," said Nick, "it seems churlish not to give something."

"They'll still be there in the morning. Helen's probably in the Cretaceous. You don't even like her anymore and she's mad as all hell at you."

"True, but I bet she takes them all the same."

Stephen snorted and slammed the door with some force.

In the morning the chocolates were gone.


	43. Feather

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 94: Feathers

As the archaeopteryx launched itself into a long, low glide, a single feather fell.

It drifted through the hot, humid air, over dark green leaves. It tumbled up and over in a vortex and then plunged downwards, through glittering light into cold, damp clay.

Some time later, trucks drove up.

"Well, wherever it led, it's gone now."

A calloused hand plucked at the end of the feather, pulling it from the mud. The flashes of orange at the tips and the iridescent blue were just visible through the grime.

"What's that?"

Sharp blue eyes and a Scottish accent: "A feather."


	44. Something Wicked this way Comes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 95

About half way through the grassy meadow, in unspoken agreement, they stopped. Connor picked wildflowers and Abby laughed as he tried to tuck them in her hair. Nick watched, the smallest of smiles lurking at the corners of his mouth. The soldiers began an impromptu game of football. The pain of the cold dark winter and the betrayals and the death were washed away in the warm bright sunshine.

Gradually, one by one, they fell asleep.

Only Lyle remained awake, gripping his gun tightly and fighting the soporific, sweet-smelling air with one hard and brittle thought.

His thumbs were pricking.


	45. Tea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 96

"Tea?" asked Jenny.

Nick made tea by pressing the bag impatiently against the side of the cup. He preferred Nescafe, at least it produced something drinkable, quickly.

On Jenny's desk sat a bone china, willow pattern, tea set. Smoky aromatic fumes filled the room. Ancient conditioning stalled Nick's incipient rant.

Jenny poured, catching large leaves in a wire strainer.

No milk, he observed, suspiciously. He picked up the delicate china and took a cautious sip. It tasted like the smell of woodsmoke intermingled with his grandmother's potpurri. He felt his anger begin to recede.

"So?" said Jenny, "What's the problem?"


	46. Extinction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 97

"When the sea levels rose competition for land became fierce. I'm sure you are not surprised to hear that competition spilled over into war and, inevitably, that war went nuclear.

"You know what? You can't make an air tight bunker in a week. Protect your family, my arse.

"The international space station kept monitoring and broadcasting. Forty-eight hours after the first bombs dropped, there wasn't a square metre of dry land which wasn't displaying `dangerously high' levels of radiation. So when your sparkly anomaly thing appeared in the middle of my bunker, Mr. Lester, why wouldn't I walk through it?"


	47. Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 98

"Abby!" Abby turned back, and her mouth gaped.

Out of the anomaly poured a bright, orange liquid. A wave of heat hit her. She scrambled into the Hilux and gunned the engine. The... the lava spread out behind the truck as Connor and Ditzy started to run towards it, liquid rock at their heals.

She drove.

They stopped on a small hill. They could see a large, red pool, darkening to black in the middle. It was still growing.

"What about Cutter and Jenny?" whispered Connor.

"Those two?" said Ditzy. "A little bit of fire won't even slow them down."


	48. Exanimate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 99

Cutter gazed down at the exanimate skull. He fingered the spikes and ridges thoughtfully.

"That's what we're up against is it?" asked Becker.

* * *

The Elginia shied away from the loud bangs and backed into the sparkling light.

Its leg hurt.

"I said don't shoot!" The cry echoed through the anomaly.

* * *

The wound festered. Days later, the wretched creature lay down by the river where it was drinking, too tired and hot to move again.

* * *

The river rose. Silt washed over the body.

The fossil hunters came and the remains went to a museum.

Cutter gazed down at the exanimate skull.


End file.
